My apologies in advance if I’ve posted this in the wrong section as I weren’t too sure where to post.

I’ve had four transactions on my account over the last four months from a company in Malta. I didn’t report as fraud when I spotted it as we had recently discovered my nephew had used it and it was possibly his transaction. The only thing is, he can’t find which website it’s related to.

What makes it worse is that, even though the transaction ID, region and amount is the same, the reference name are for websites that don’t exist. They also change the site name each month.

Isn’t there a law against this?
Surely they should be giving a correct website address to make it clear where the charge is coming from?

It’s frustrating as I reported it to Barclays last month and they said they’d block future payments, but I can only assume that they couldn’t link the payments as the reference name continues to change.

How do you know it's fraud if your nephew has been making transactions on the site?

He hasn’t been making transactions, they are direct debits.
I’m not really referring to it as fraud but the only way I can find information about the company is by reporting it to the bank to investigate, which would involve the fraud team.
They haven’t included the web address of the website used OR the website where payments are managed (ie CCBILL, PayPal etc).
They’ve just used the name of a non existent website

He used the card number originally and then all future payments came out monthly.
When I spoke to Barclays after the second charge, they told me the only details of where the transactions had come from were what I could see on the statement, which just showed a transaction code and the reference was a website that doesn’t exist. They said they couldn’t find any more information unless they passed it to fraud. The company have used a different reference each month.
I agreed with Barclays that they place a block on payments going out to this company but it doesn’t seem to have worked.

dx100's question occurred to me as well. From what you say seems more likely your nephew gave your debit card number than that he set up a direct debit. And he set up a Continuous Payment Authority. Follow dx's advice. Also ask the bank to reissue the card with a different number (although changing the number may not in itself prevent the charges going through it should flag them up).

There's a reason the dating site charges it with a different name every month. It's to stop you blocking it! Barclays will probably say they can only block debits made by a company if you tell them who the company is. It's likely this is a [problem] of some sort so go the Fraud route. [problem]mers are generally not that fussed about what the law says....

under the CPA rules they MUST cancel and refund all of them..no get out

GENERAL NOTES ON CHARGEBACK & Continuous Payment Authority & BACS
.....
We have been telling people to put a letter into their bank instructing them
not to make any payments under any circumstances to these companies
.http://whatconsumer.co.uk/visa-debit-chargeback/- it works!
usually this should be done using the number on your debit card
.
banks MUST follow written intructions from their customers !
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CANCELLING YOUR DEBIT CARD DOES NOT STOP CPA'S
.
This fsa guide has now been updated:
.http://www.fsa.gov.uk/static/pubs/co...ghts_guide.PDFhttp://www.fca.org.uk/news/continuou...ight-to-cancelhttps://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/una...yments-account
.
Here's the text:
.
Cancelling a regular
card payment:
.
When you give your credit or debit card details to a company and authorise them to take regular payments from your account,
such as for a gym membership or magazine subscription,
it is known as a ‘recurring transaction’ or ‘continuous payment authority’.
.
These are often confused with direct debits, but do not offer the same guarantee if the amount or date of the payment changes.
.
In most cases, regular payments can be cancelled by telling the company taking the payments.
.
However,
you have the right to cancel them directly with your bank or card issuer by telling it that you have stopped permission for the payments.
Your bank or card issuer must then stop them – it has no right to insist that you agree this first with the company taking the payments.
.
Be aware, though, that you will still be responsible for paying any money that you owe.
and that CANELLING YOUR CARD WILL NOT STOP THE CPA
.
..
.
New june 2013
.
Regulator orders Banks and mutuals to review complaints about not cancelling recurring payments from November 2009.
.
Consumers who have set up a regular payment from their account will now be able to successfully cancel that arrangement
by contacting their card provider, the Financial Conduct Authority said.
.
The FCA has been examining how easy it is for customers to cancel Continuous Payment Authorities (CPAs)
due either to payday lendersicon or for other regular payments such as subscriptions or gymicon memberships.
.
CPAs, which are also commonly called recurring transactions or recurring payments,
are relatively easy to set up but can be hard to cancel, causing problems for consumers trying to manage their finances,the FCA said.
.
Now, following the FCA review of how the largest high street banks and mutuals process requests to cancel CPAs, they have agreed that they will ensure that when
a customer asks for a recurring payment to end, that will be sufficient to cancel the arrangement. They have also confirmed that should a payment go through by
mistake following cancellation by a customer the customer will be refunded immediately.
.
In addition to securing this commitment, the largest banks and mutuals have agreed to review every individual complaint they have received about the non-
cancellation of a CPA and to pay redress where payments have continued to be made despite the customer cancelling the arrangement. This applies to all complaints
since November 2009 when the Financial Services Authority, the FCA’s predecessor, began regulating banking conduct.
.
Clive Adamson, the FCA’s director of supervision, said: “It’s important that consumers are confident that banks are meeting their everyday banking needs. Today
customers can be confident that when they ask for a Continuous Payment Authority to be cancelled – it will be cancelled - and that it can be done easily.
.
“We recognise that historically this is an area where some customers have struggled but the banks and mutuals have responded positively to our work on this issue.
From now on we expect them to be getting this right. In addition, they have committed to review past complaints.”
.
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Also mentioned your displeasure that as whomever took your money had obviously attempted this many times
probably activating your banks own anti fraud software - nobody had the decency to inform my you this was going on.?

.
.In the FSA's own words:
.
..
What should I do about a payment from my account that I didn’t authorise?
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Your bank must refund an unauthorised transaction.
Money can only be taken from your account if you have authorised the transaction
or if your bank can prove you were at fault –
.
see below.
Contact your bank immediately if you notice an unauthorised payment from your account.
.
If you are sure you did not authorise the payment, you can claim a refund.
.
However, your bank does not have to refund you if you do not tell it about the payment until 13 months
or more after the date it left your account.
.
Your bank must refund an unauthorised transaction
.
------------------
.
Your bank may only refuse a refund for an unauthorised transaction if:
.
? it can prove you authorised the transaction
– though your bank cannot simply say that use of your password,
card and PIN proves you authorised a payment; or
.
? it can prove you are at fault because you acted fraudulently,
or because you deliberately,
or with gross negligence, failed to protect the details of your card, PIN or password in a way that allowed the transaction
.
-----------------------
.
How quickly must my bank refund me for an unauthorised transaction?
.
The bank must make the refund immediately unless it has evidence that one of the above reasons applies.

Your bank may ask you to answer some questions and fill out a form confirming what has happened,
but it cannot delay your refund while it waits for you to return the form.

If the bank has evidence that one of the above reasons for refusing a refund applies,
it may investigate before making a refund
but must look into it as quickly as possible.

If your bank rejects your claim for a refund it should explain why.
If the transaction was on a credit card, the refund may not happen immediately.

But the card issuer cannot charge interest or ask for repayment of the amount unless it can prove you are liable to pay

Not to come across a bit daft here, but in a nutshell what does that tell me?
Am I perfectly in my rights to demand a refund in reference to the information you have posted?
For my position, had the transactions shown the website/billing name so I could have cancelled it, then I wouldn’t be in this position. My frustration is that there wasn’t anyway of me identifying how to cancel it with no company details provided.

and if you talk to someone who suggests otherwise, take their names and position and tell them that they will be included in a complaint to barclays head office as well as a formal complaint to the FCA. I bet theyll soon back down.

a few years back there was a big run on firms selling face-creams or whatever and it was quite usual for them to cpa under differing names to try and extort extra monies once they had your card details.

read a few here
you'll get the idea of cpa and how to handle banks that refuse to honour your rights